Month: October 2005

President Bush has nominated Judge Sam Allito to replace J. O’Connor. Well, we’ll see. But, when your opposition’s nickname for you is “Scalito” (or “Scalia-Lite”), what are we supposed to say?

Pluto has more moons. Cool. So, if one moon is Charon, what will the others be called? See, I figure like this: Pluto was the god of the underworld; Charon was the man who led the boat down the underworld’s river. There’s the River Styx; Persephone was Pluto’s wife for six months of the year. Or, we could always go with Goofy and Donald or something.

Hmm, interesting story: due to concerns of the extinction of the beluga, beluga caviar is going to be banned. So, I guess you better eat while you can. (well, not like I eat that stuff). But, there’s almost a cost-benefit analysis – give up your luxury to save a species. Eat other kinds of caviar. Or just don’t eat caviar. (okay, so I have no appreciation for it; forgive me).

The story on George Takei, the former Mr. Sulu of Star Trek. Coincidentally, the story comes on the heels of WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes’s story. Society’s going to take some time in dealing with its views of masculinity, femininity, and sexuality and correlations to Hollywood and sports (where men aren’t men unless they’re “men,” and women aren’t women unless they’re “women” … ok, I’m simplifying way too much), plus I’m thinking that the nexus of race, gender, and sexual orientation must be very interesting too. It’s a complicated world, to say the least.

The wonderful world of comics:

“Mary Worth” ended one storyline last week (ending it with Mary’s friend leaving town for a new and more optimistic life, and Mary and her boyfriend, Dr. Jeff, spouting annoying aphorisms, as usual) with a curiously interesting one (okay, so I’m a sucker for the angsty romantic storylines of “Mary Worth” more than that recent storyline of “I lost my adult daughter in a fatal car accident, and I’ll go back to drinking and I can’t function until my long-lost cousin invites me to help him run the family business, but I still haven’t resolved my man-hating problem because my husband left me years ago…”). 😉

Anyway, so this week, Mary’s neighbor, Wilbur Weston, who writes a “Dear Wendy” advice column (he’s pretending to be “Wendy,” but he’s just this pudgy middle aged divorced guy), receives a letter from an unhappily married woman. Unhappily Married Woman needs help, because her workaholic husband doesn’t want to go to marriage counseling. They’ve no kids to tie them down either. In today’s comics, since whatever the couple has tried hasn’t worked, Wilbur’s thinking about advising them to consider the final option of “moving on” (thinking of his previous experience anyway). His college-age daughter Dawn comes home and hears him out. She seems to disagree with him, but ruefully concedes that “You’re the expert on matters of the heart, not me.”

I liked that last panel of the close-up of Dawn and her one liner, since it harkens back to her rather failed romance wherein her sort-of boyfriend, Forrest “Woody” Hills (get it?), had to be sent to the mental illness facility, because he went bonkers after finishing his dissertation (you had to feel bad for her, especially when her relationship with Woody was strangely cute (she drafted him, an eccentric grad student, in her scheme to get her father out of dating a gold-digging woman)).

“Judge Parker” comic strip – This week, Judge Parker’s son, Randy, got dumped by his fiancee, Mimi, due to a differences in religion (or cult or what, I don’t know – Mimi appears to be head of some organization that seems much too much like Scientology or something). For a young lawyer who appears to have some brains, it never occurred to Randy that a flighty blonde girl named “Mimi” might not be someone with whom you’d settle down? (although, it appears that the comic writers are headed in the direction of letting Randy consider the attraction of the firm’s temp secretary, another flighty blonde – who had just been recruited by the… CIA? Geez, Randy.).

In today’s edition, Randy’s boss (or law firm partner?) Sam Driver has just returned from Mexico (having gotten their firm’s office manager Gloria out of corrupt Mexican jail). On the ride home from the airport, he learns that his adopted daughter, high school senior Neddy, got a new boyfriend during her summer in California. Abby, his wife, tells him that Neddy wants them to meet Bob, who’ll be coming to their place (flying in from California) tomorrow. The last panel shows Sam totally stunned – wide eyes and frozen. Geez, Sam, it’s not like Neddy never brought home a boyfriend before (or maybe he’s just stunned that so much was thrown at him so fast). Pity the poor father of two teenagers and a law firm that’s somehow in operations while he was dealing with archeological pilferers in Mexico (not to mention Mexico’s rather corrupt criminal justice system and mindless bailiffs).

Today’s a “Doonesbury” Sunday rerun, (from last year, and I remembered thinking it was funny then too) – Mike Doonesbury’s friend/ex-business partner, Bernie, explains how his nephew, Zig (who hasn’t been seen yet, but sounds like a hilarious kid), has learned how to make outsourcing work for him in his “systems analyst” job:

Bernie: “Every night [Zig] e-mails a day of work to this wicked smart engineer in Bombay. The next morning, the completed work is sitting in his mailbox. [Bernie smiling proudly:] Zig pays the engineer a third of his salary and, is now looking for a second job!”

Mike [stunned]: “Wow… that’s impressive… [Mike glancing at Bernie:] And his boss hasn’t caught on?”

Bernie, deadpanned: “No, every few weeks Zig has the engineer screw up.”

Hehehe. I’d almost say that this trumps the Sunday edition of 10/16/05, wherein young Jeff Redfern of Walden College gets a reminder from his roommate Zipper (yeah, Garry Trudeau’s going to have to start giving his characters original names). Zipper wisely tells Jeff of how Alex Doonesbury (Mike’s daughter who’s going on her college tour and therefore visiting Walden) is Jeff’s half-niece and therefore a no-no for Jeff’s dating purposes (geez, Jeff, you need Zipper to tell you that?!) (Zipper: “Can you date a half-niece? Aren’t there genetic implications? I’d go slow, dude!”).

Enjoying your hour back yet? Daylight savings is done for the rest of the year.